This #Existentialist article sums up some shocking facts of #failed #States in the #USA. Solution? A focus on imaginary issues.

#Missisippi > water system collapse > residents spent weeks collecting rainwater in buckets > mandatory "In God We Trust" classroom posters.

#Alabama > hookworm problem, a disease of extreme poverty eradicated in most developing nations decades ago > abortion bans.

#Louisiana > highest incarceration rate on Earth > Ten Commandments displays in classrooms.

@xankarn

Charles Caldwell and other local leaders represented perhaps better than anyone else the opportunities that existed under Reconstruction for freedpeople to develop a potent and responsible class of leaders. That so many influential blacks met the same end as Caldwell illuminates the violence on which Democratic power ultimately rested.

6/6

#BlackMastodon #history #Histodons #Missisippi #Politics #BlackTwitter

Later, racist ruffians spitefully killed Caldwell’s brother, Samuel, who had nothing to do with politics. They then burst into Caldwell’s home where his wife had laid out the bodies of the two brothers and raised a ruckus, turning the bodies out of their coffins and cursing them.  Such as cowards do, these men couldn’t stand up to Caldwell in life, so they could only do so when he could no longer defend himself.

5/6

#BlackMastodon #history #Histodons #Missisippi #Politics #BlackTwitter

Not quite dead, Caldwell’s last request was granted: he was carried out into the street so that all could see that he remained defiant.  He stood, straightened his blood stained clothes. With great difficulty, he told the assassins not to forget that they were killing a brave man and that when he was dead be mindful of the fact that he was not a docile man. At that instant, some 40 shots rang out, delivering the fatal blow.

4/6

#BlackMastodon #history #Histodons #Missisippi #Politics

On December 25, 1875, Caldwell traveled to Clinton to learn about who was threatening his nephew. An acquaintance, Buck Cabell, invited him to have a drink in celebration of Christmas—but he preferred to go home and celebrate with his wife. However, he yielded to Cabell's persistence. It was a fateful mistake. At Chilton's Store on Leake and Jefferson Streets, they touched glasses, signaling assassins to shoot Caldwell in the head.

3/6

#BlackMastodon #history #Histodons #Missisippi #Politics